The Drones Are Coming Home

Will baby-sized drones soon be used routinely for tracking residential property lines and other domestic purposes? With our nation’s adventures in Iraq coming to an end, unmanned drones will need to be kept busy doing something…via BLDG BLOG:

A post on sUAS News—a blog tracking the “small unmanned aviation system industry”—we read about the possibility of drone aircraft being used to enforce residential property tax.

Citing a recent court ruling in Arkansas that “has approved the use of aerial imagery to collect data on property sizes,” and making reference to the already-controversial state deployment of aerial surveillance tools, sUAS suggests that drones could someday be used to manage a near-realtime catalog of local property expansions, transfers, and other tax-relevant land alterations.

Whether enforcing local building codes—keeping an eye, for instance, on illegally built structures such as the so-called Achill Henge in Ireland—or reconciling on-the-ground property lines with their administrative representations back in the city land archives, how soon will drones become a state tool for regional landscape management?

“Imagine your local planning officer having access to your back garden at a moment’s notice!” sUAS writes with alarm. “With the pullback from Iraq and other spots under way, this scenario is much easier to imagine. Perhaps it’s already happening.”

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Though not specifically about privacy, this news reminds me that we’re gradually being maneuvered into being constantly tracked, observed, and our movement history recorded…I was going to say “for later playback,” but actually I should say “for later ‘proof’ of ‘wrong-doing.'”

Sadly, we just kind of go along with it. We willingly allow private companies and the government to monitor us as they please.

Nunzio X

Though not specifically about privacy, this news reminds me that we’re gradually being maneuvered into being constantly tracked, observed, and our movement history recorded…I was going to say “for later playback,” but actually I should say “for later ‘proof’ of ‘wrong-doing.'”

Sadly, we just kind of go along with it. We willingly allow private companies and the government to monitor us as they please.

Anarchy Pony

Remember: It’s not if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear. Its really if you don’t defy the demands/wishes/orders of the ruling elite/state/dominant culture, you have nothing to fear.